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SKILLS WEEK - DAY 1


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The wait is finally over!

 

Skills Week is here and we kick the week off with ‘Getting to grips with Track’.

 

Visit our dedicated section to view videos and practical how-to guides on all things track-related to help you get started on your next layout project!

 

Visit here - https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/information/skills-week-day-1-getting-to-grips-with-track/ 

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Edited by AY Mod
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Well, I have to say I was left disappointed to an extent by the video on track laying. While I did like learning about the special drill bit (where can you get one, though) for cutting slots, I was hoping that it would show fitting the rail joiners to the track. This seems never to be shown—why? Perhaps it's regarded as trivial, but hammering track pins in is shown—which is surely also trivial.

 

The problem I find is holding the rail joiner tightly enough to be able to slide it into place, while being able to actually see the thing; if I hold it so I can see it it isn’t held tightly enough, and if I hold it tightly enough I can't see it. (I work mostly in N and 009, which certainly doesn't help.) That prevents me from using flexible track, and means I have to dump any sectional track pieces that "lose" their fishplates (Fleischmann Piccolo seems particularly prone to this, despite the high price.) The only rail joiners I can manage to replace are those on Kato Unitrack — the plastic shroud surrounding them gives more to hold on to.

 

Are there any tricks I'm missing? I'm aware that Atlas make a tool which is supposed to assist, but is it any good, and does it work with other makes of track? Are there any other tools?

 

Or is the reason fitting rail joiners is never shown is because the presenters are struggling too and don't like to admit it?

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Been railway modelling over 50 years now, never had an issue with rail joiners.

 

Simply push them carefully in by hand and make sure the adjoining rail slides in correctly by using a flat surface.

 

This has always worked for me in gauges from N to O.

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8 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

Well, I have to say I was left disappointed to an extent by the video on track laying. While I did like learning about the special drill bit (where can you get one, though) for cutting slots, I was hoping that it would show fitting the rail joiners to the track. This seems never to be shown—why? Perhaps it's regarded as trivial, but hammering track pins in is shown—which is surely also trivial.

 

...

 

Are there any tricks I'm missing? I'm aware that Atlas make a tool which is supposed to assist, but is it any good, and does it work with other makes of track? Are there any other tools?

 

5 hours ago, 08221 said:

Been railway modelling over 50 years now, never had an issue with rail joiners.

 

Simply push them carefully in by hand and make sure the adjoining rail slides in correctly by using a flat surface.

 

This has always worked for me in gauges from N to O.

 

I haven't often needed to work with rail joiners - when I have, I've just used old-school box nose pliers.

 

As you're aware, these joiners are basically a thin metal strip, bent up into a flattened tube (which covers the flanges at the bottom of the rail), with a slot the whole length of the joiner (which the vertical web of the rail goes into).

 

Just slide the joiners around the flanges - using pliers to hold them - you want them to stay in place, so they don't want to be loose - but they also don't want to be too tight.

 

The joiners can be flattened / tightened using the pliers - to loosen them, a small flat blade screwdriver might also come in useful.

 

As for these tools - along with the fancy drill bits - I'd be inclined to try looking in a specialist tool shop (lots of large towns have them - but I'm sure that some of these places also sell by post or over the internet). I'm not sure if Screwfix or Toolstation do the drill bits - but probably worth checking. (I'd be surprised if the pliers and screwdrivers weren't to feature in their catalogues.) Otherwise, keep your eyes open the next few times Lidl or Aldi do "centre aisle" promos on tools / DIY.

 

 

Huw.

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I watched @Phil Parker's ballasting tutorial - very good, except it would have been good to see the finished product once all the glue had dried.

 

Once question I have (and this probably has a multitude of different answers) is how big should the shoulders of ballast be  - just covering the sleeper ends, or almost as much again as the end of sleeper to rail distance ?

Edited by Stubby47
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What size of ballast, shoulder widths, vegetation and weeds are very dependent on what time period you are modelling.  The modern era, big ballast, big shoulders and the "green tunnel effect" are very different from pre-nationalisation tidiness, smaller ballast and grass to the boundary fence.  Photographs of the railway of your desired period are the best answer.

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Whenever I struggle to get rail joiners on, I normally find that the problem is a burr on the track from cutting - even when using Xuron cutters rather than a saw. A quick bit of attention with a flat file and it makes it much easier. Of course, the other problem is where I have used pliers on the rail joiner and squeezed them too hard... :)

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34 minutes ago, MartynJPearson said:

Whenever I struggle to get rail joiners on, I normally find that the problem is a burr on the track from cutting - even when using Xuron cutters rather than a saw. A quick bit of attention with a flat file and it makes it much easier. Of course, the other problem is where I have used pliers on the rail joiner and squeezed them too hard... :)

 

Fair comment.

 

As for the point about squeezing pliers too hard, this is why I thought it best to mention the possible use of a small screwdriver to open up the slots in rail joiners.

 

I don't doubt that other people will have their own ideas here, though.

 

 

Huw.

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21 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

Well, I have to say I was left disappointed to an extent by the video on track laying. While I did like learning about the special drill bit (where can you get one, though) for cutting slots, I was hoping that it would show fitting the rail joiners to the track. This seems never to be shown—why? Perhaps it's regarded as trivial, but hammering track pins in is shown—which is surely also trivial.

 

The problem I find is holding the rail joiner tightly enough to be able to slide it into place, while being able to actually see the thing; if I hold it so I can see it it isn’t held tightly enough, and if I hold it tightly enough I can't see it. (I work mostly in N and 009, which certainly doesn't help.) That prevents me from using flexible track, and means I have to dump any sectional track pieces that "lose" their fishplates (Fleischmann Piccolo seems particularly prone to this, despite the high price.) The only rail joiners I can manage to replace are those on Kato Unitrack — the plastic shroud surrounding them gives more to hold on to.

 

Are there any tricks I'm missing? I'm aware that Atlas make a tool which is supposed to assist, but is it any good, and does it work with other makes of track? Are there any other tools?

 

Or is the reason fitting rail joiners is never shown is because the presenters are struggling too and don't like to admit it?

 

Firstly, I'm sorry that my video was so disappointing. It's always tricky to know what to include in any piece.

 

I'll admit that fishplates have never been much of an issue on the smaller scales (LGB ones are an entirely different story) as they just slide on and off. A pair of needle point pliers to hold the end helps, but very often, I just hold them in my fingers. If a fishplate won't go on, it's usually a burr left from cutting which is quickly dealt with using a small file.

 

As I always say, we'll cover any topic if people mention it, but this one has never come up. I'll add fishplate to the list for the future.

 

Special drill bit? Google is your friend. Always a useful tool to keep handy and widely available.

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2 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

Firstly, I'm sorry that my video was so disappointing.

I'm sorry that you thought I thought it was that disappointing — it was really good, just missing the one bit that I was particularly hoping you covered … burrs aren't the difficulty for me, as I was trying to replace missing rail joiners on sectional track. I've tried needle-nose pliers, but usually end up crushing the rail joiners with them…

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one technique I've heard of but not tried is to first partially add the fishplate (less than 50% of the fishplate length) onto a scrap piece of suitable sized rail , which could have a thin handle (gaffa tape??) forming a jig. This could be done at the bench or other convenient location where sighting was easy. Then line up the jig with the intended new fishplate rail and add the open end of the fishplate on the jig onto the desired rail. Grip the final rail with pliers and pull the jig off.

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26 minutes ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

I'm sorry that you thought I thought it was that disappointing — it was really good, just missing the one bit that I was particularly hoping you covered … burrs aren't the difficulty for me, as I was trying to replace missing rail joiners on sectional track. I've tried needle-nose pliers, but usually end up crushing the rail joiners with them…

I find for awkward ones, holding the end of the fishplate in needle-nose pliers works best - i.e. the bit that is only a single layer. You need fairly small pliers though - modelling ones, not DIY ones!

 

     v rail you're attaching to this end

 |\  /|

 ||||

 |/  \|

     ^grip in pliers here

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4 hours ago, BMS said:

one technique I've heard of but not tried is to first partially add the fishplate (less than 50% of the fishplate length) onto a scrap piece of suitable sized rail , which could have a thin handle (gaffa tape??) forming a jig. This could be done at the bench or other convenient location where sighting was easy. Then line up the jig with the intended new fishplate rail and add the open end of the fishplate on the jig onto the desired rail. Grip the final rail with pliers and pull the jig off.

 

That's a new one to me, but I like the sound of it. 

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11 hours ago, Nick C said:

@Phil Parker Will the "skills week" content remain available after the end of the week? 

 

5 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

Most of the content is already on the site, but the pages that bring it all together only last a day. Don't worry, we aren't binning any of it!

 

More "gold" content - perhaps with pointers in the "gold members' zone"?

 

Perhaps not - just a throwaway thought!

 

 

Huw.

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Being critical isn't one of my strong points (no pun intended) but perhaps the title should be basic skills week. I was expecting to find advice on how to bend turnouts, create super elevation on curves, countersink the fixing pins or even what works best for cleaning rails.

Over here we're all talking about how polarization creates dirt build up and what works best to avoid it. Track rubbers have gone the way of the Dodo in North America. So yeah good videos but disappointing  on account of being way too basic. Sorry!

 

Regards Shaun.   

Edited by Sasquatch
Typos. (wasn't wearing my readers!).
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8 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

Being critical isn't one of my strong points (no pun intended) but perhaps the title should be basic skills week. I was expecting to find advice on how to bend turnouts, create super elevation on curves, countersink the fixing pins or even what works best for cleaning rails.

Over here we're all talking about how polarization creates dirt build up and what works best to avoid it. Track rubbers have gone the way of the Dodo in North America. So yeah good videos but disappointing  on account of being way too basic. Sorry!

 

I think whether a skill counts as "basic" tends to depend on your own personal skill level and we are trying to be as inclusive as possible.

 

I'm curious about the polarization aspect. A quick look on this forum (the world's largest) shows no mention of it in this context other than your post, so I'm guessing that when you say "we're all talking" that's a subset of the hobby otherwise I'd have expected at least something on here.

 

As for track rubbers - a quick looks shows American stores stock them, and Peco are still shipping them to the US. If no-one is using them then the people who buy the stocks are way out of tune with the market. Perhaps your supermarkets also sell dodo? Even if you prefer not to use a track rubber, it's one way to achieve clean track. Other prefer graphite, electronic cleaners or track cleaning wagons - there is no one "right" method.

 

There will be differences between the various countries. UK layouts tend to be smaller as we don't enjoy the massive basements found in the US. Thus, we wouldn't bother countersinking fixing pins. Finescale fans simply don't use them, and if anyone does, and the very small pin head worries them, they take the pin out and fill the hole. That's what I did on the project layout in the current BRM, BUT, it's a very small layout. Filling holes is practical, but would be a much bigger chore on a very large model, so a different approach is preferable. The same argument can be made for track rubbers - they are more effort for a large set than a small one, hence the popularity in the UK.

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Hi Phil. Thankyou for taking time to reply. I really don't like being critical, especially as I'm about the only British outline modeler for a thousand miles and can't afford to upset fellow modelers on the web!

Having only built 5 layouts (only two of which have been completed) I can only claim to be an average modeler. Due to shipping costs my skill set has advanced into scratch building only learnt with advice and inspiration as an active RMweb member and by trial and error!

 

Please watch this video on track cleaning advice by this Aussie fella who isn't as serious as the Yank (tends to drag on a bit too). It'll be well worth 13 minutes of any bodies time. 

My local model shop Al's cycles in Medford did indeed have a Peco track rubber in stock at one point but had nothing to offer when I lost my old worn out one. I also went all the way to Mac's Tracks in Roseburg (a 170 mile round trip) to get some supplies and a track rubber also out of stock. (You don't want to go in any office supply stores over here and ask for an ink rubber BTW).

Out of frustration I looked at the internet to find an alternative way to clean track. I also used Isopropyl alcohol for a while and found it washed the dirt into rail joints etc. causing obvious problems.

 

Admittedly we are spoilt for space over here, I wont deny that and I seem to have bitten off more than I can chew so to speak. But; I do now have the opportunity to build my dream layout and will go "dumpster diving" for stuff like insulation foam to achieve it.

 

Lots of detail comes down to personal preference, like counter sinking the track pins I found it well worth the time spent. I even go so far as to seek out a certain type of pin with a mesh head. As for bending proprietary turnouts all I can say is once you find out how simple it is to do you'll never want to lay one straight from the packaging again.  (Doesn't work for diamond crossings as some from this parish have watched with a wince as I failed horribly).

 

Please keep up the great work the videos are exceptionally well produced. Any encouragement aimed at our hobby is always most welcome and I apologize for not seeing that last night.   

 

Kind regards Shaun.

Edited by Sasquatch
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On 21/09/2021 at 08:17, D9020 Nimbus said:

I'm sorry that you thought I thought it was that disappointing — it was really good, just missing the one bit that I was particularly hoping you covered … burrs aren't the difficulty for me, as I was trying to replace missing rail joiners on sectional track. I've tried needle-nose pliers, but usually end up crushing the rail joiners with them…

Hope I'm not stating the obvious but one thing I have learnt is that one companies joiners are not always compatible with others, ie. Peco joiners wont fit atlas track and Atlas joiners are too loose for Peco track etc. So if you are mix and matching rail on your layout it's a problem that needs solving!

 

Regards Shaun.

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